Monday, January 31, 2011

Intel Smartphones

In a press-release from Intel today they have announced more details on what we know as Moorestown; the low-power computing platform that should take Intel to the historical moment of enabling an X86 mobile phone. The two-component platform will implement the Z6XX processing unit (was Lincroft) containing Atom-based CPU, GPU, 1080p video decoders and 720p encoder, and the MP20 ‘Platform Control Hub’ (was Langwell) alongside a power control module that has previously been referred to as Briertown.Details on the handset are almost entirely unknown, bar the chipset, but Intel hasn’t been shy with its Medfield expectations. Back in August 2010 the company promised to match ARM’s chipsets – currently the popular favorite in mobile devies like smartphones – for active power consumption with the new Medfield processors, which are expected to debut in shipping devices later this year.

At least one of those devices, so the rumors would have it, will be from Nokia’s stable and run MeeGo, the two companies’ collaborative open-source OS. Leaks earlier this month suggested the Nokia N9 had been reworked using a 1.2GHz Medfield processor and dropping the hardware keyboard, and would be shown off at MWC 2011 next month.